Beatrice @ The Merc: Jennifer Cody Epstein & Fiona Maazel

Readers in the New York City area are invited to join me at the Mercantile Library Center for Fiction (17 E 47th St.) next Wednesday, January 28, at 7 p.m. for another installment of the only reading series I know about dedicated to debut novelists.

Jennifer Cody Epstein (The Painter from Shanghai) has written for Self, the Wall Street Journal, and the Chicago Tribune. She has published short fiction in several journals and was a finalist in a Glimmer Train fiction contest.

Fiona Maazel (Last Last Chance) has written for Anthem, Bomb, The Mississippi Review, The New York Times, N+1.com, Pierogi Press, Salon, Tin House, The Village Voice, and the Yale Review. She is the 2005 recipient of a Lannan Foundation Fellowship, winner of the Bard Prize for 2009, and a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree for 2008.

24 January 2009 | events |

Beatrice @ The Merc: Mark Budman & Cristy C. Road

I’m proud to announce a new batch of events for “Beatrice @ The Merc,” a reading series dedicated to debut novelists that I curate for the Mercantile Library Center for Fiction. On Wednesday, January 14, my guests will be Mark Budman (My Life at First Try) and Cristy C. Road (Bad Habits); the reading will take place at the Mercantile’s midtown Manhattan headquarters (17 E 47th St.) at 7 p.m. Books will be available for purchase after the readings, and we’ll also have wine and cheese.

Mark Budman‘s works have appeared or are about to appear in such magazines as Weird Tales, Mississippi Review, Virginia Quarterly, The London Magazine, Iowa Review, McSweeney’s, Turnrow, Connecticut Review and the anthology Flash Fiction Forward. He is the publisher of the flash fiction magazine Vestal Review. He is the co-editor of the anthology You Have Time for This, published in 2007 by Ooligan Press; a yet untitled anthology is forthcoming in 2009 from Persea Books.

Cristy C. Road has been illustrating ideas, people, and places, ever since she learned how to hold a crayon. She graduated in 2004 with a bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Illustration, whether or not the administration at herschool irritated her. Roughly two years after that, her repertoire consists of ten years of independent publishing, two graphic novels, and countless illustrations for a broad slew of magazines, record album art, concert posters, and political organizations.

And, while I’ve got your attention, mark January 28 and February 11 on your calendar—I’m still pinning down a few last details, but the authors I do have lined up already are great, and you’re going to want to be there!

6 January 2009 | events |